Surbiton Thai

 We've been in Surbiton 4 years now, but had yet to try the Thai restaurant, NayThai, preferring the Japanese, Boat, nearby. But we needed to find somewhere that did a range of vegetarian dishes for E who is staying with us, so as the Thai offers a vegetable option for all its soups, stir-fries and curries that seems like a good idea.  

On a Wednesday evening, the place is very nearly full, but we do get a good table. The decor is classically over-the-top Thai restaurant, with lots of elephants, dancing girls, buddhas and lotus flowers, with a typical sound track too.  The Spanish SB is their standard house white at £22. 

We have some the very good Thai prawn crackers, spicy with a sweet chilli sauce. For starters B and I share the Thai fish cakes and the pork and prawn dumplings. Both were a little stodgy, though the fish cakes better than many - not like ice hockey pucks. E has the Tom Yum soup, which is not as hot as she would have liked, despite having two chillies on the menu. This may have been a misunderstanding as she had asked how hot it was and they may have assumed she didn't want it hot. It did have a good interesting lemongrass flavour though.

One of the main courses we chose was the steak salad - though they brought it out along with the starters, and tried to clear it away with them too. This too was marked with two chillies - and it lived up to it, with loads of chilli pieces scattered all through it. Very tender too, with good fresh herbs. Our other dish was king prawns with tamarind - good sized prawns with a punchy dark sauce, plus some jasmine rice. E has noodles with chilli and bamboo shoots - two more chillies, but no complaints this time.

With a second bottle of wine, sparkling water and a modest 10% service (the two little waitresses were very efficient without being particularly friendly, but then it was busy) the bill comes to a very reasonable £135.

The following Saturday after the farmers' market we head to Boat for lunch, but for some reason it is closed. So we return to NayThai as it is so close.  It is quite busy but not as much as on Wednesday. We have the prawn crackers (a goodly sized portion) and the SB again before checking on the menu.

This time we do have a salad as a starter to share - the seafood one, packed with prawns, mussels, squid and the occasional scallop. This again is good and spicy - we need to ask for tap water.  For mains we have the duck with tamarind, a better combination than the prawns probably, but very rich and strong flavoured. We also have the steamed sea bass with loads of ginger, soy sauce, and mushrooms. This is excellent but rather too delicate a taste to be paired with the duck. It's also a very large portion, so we end up asking for a doggy bag to take it away, with some of the duck and crackers too. 

We have rice and two 250ml glasses of SB (priced very reasonably at almost exactly a third of a bottle) and some rice, making the bill a touch over £100.  Very good value for a full-flavoured meal.